It is this threads 2nd birthday today!
Merry Choobing to everyone.
So. what fresh hell is this
if they are surgeons shouldn't they be Mr.'s instead of Dr's? Truly, how many trans practicing surgeons can there be? Something seems pretty off with this...other than the gross ...entire ideological presentation of the whole thing*.
I mean,I suppose I can see loads of them choosing to be non-binary, in order to be able to be more special and get more power in their corner. Surgeons are famously the highest profession for sociopathology... it helps to be able to keep calm when you are cutting into human flesh with their lives hanging in balance - double so when there are precisely zero stakes for what happens if you DONT do the operation, I should imagine.
also lol
"consider" in one hand and shit in the other, when you're making people lifelong patients and urio-genitaly mutilating and disabling them
*from the linked "values" page in the image above
They have Mr/Miss titles, so here ae indeed some surgeons / consultants on the board .. and look, they got at least one confirmed-in-title genspec
imagine referencing a fucking philosophy tube video in your supposedly medical rebuff, jfc. 'rapid response', was no joke, was it.
Isn't this exactly the kind of thing - long waiting times and lack of response - that Olly was whining about in the very video this guy is citing in his complaint to the BMJ?
Can't see any YouTube videos, though around half of what's on the list are separate entries from a single book, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy. A good chunk of the rest seem to be articles rather than serious scholarly work. As for the actual books, by Seneca, Epictetus et al, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he only skimmed them. Full list here:
The princess of TERF Island has been busy whining advocating for trans rights at a charity called the King's Fund:
Hopefully they were doing no more than politely humouring and head-patting this raving extremist who demands priority treatment from the NHS, despite insisting that gender dysphoria doesn't exist. They can't actually take him seriously, right?
Can't see any YouTube videos, though around half of what's on the list are separate entries from a single book, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy. A good chunk of the rest seem to be articles rather than serious scholarly work. As for the actual books, by Seneca, Epictetus et al, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he only skimmed them. Full list here:
While it's good that he has sources I guess, the way he uses them only really serve to
1. Give his statements some thin veil of authority
2. Like here, brag about all the things he has supposedly read.
They certainly don't help that much to check the truthfulness of his statements.
Can't see any YouTube videos, though around half of what's on the list are separate entries from a single book, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy. A good chunk of the rest seem to be articles rather than serious scholarly work. As for the actual books, by Seneca, Epictetus et al, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he only skimmed them. Full list here:
Hopefully they were doing no more than politely humouring and head-patting this raving extremist who demands priority treatment from the NHS, despite insisting that gender dysphoria doesn't exist. They can't actually take him seriously, right?
Hmmm I do like playing guess-the-theme with Ollie.
Stoicism, as I understand it, isn't all that much like what we think of as being stoic. I have the sense it's more like an old timey Victorian Christian (of the non-hypocritical sort) - you should be virtuous and temperate. You should do things that help your community and work towards the greater good. You should have the serenity to accept the things you cannot change and not get too wound up about how life is unfair, instead you should take the things life throws in your way on the chin and do your best to keep going. You shouldn't be egotistical or self centred, and you shouldn't chase after hedonistic pleasure because pleasure without purpose leads to ruin; instead of being a slave to your base desires you should think rationally about everything and interrogate what purpose your acts serve. You should live simply and not be extravagant or attention seeking, because those things do not serve any higher purpose other than indulging your drive for pleasure. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" kinda vibes. I think they're also against avoiding stuff because it’s unpleasant as "avoid unpleasant things just because they feel bad" is the other side of the coin to "do pleasant things just because they feel good" so isn't a rational approach and you should be prepared to make sacrifices, and you'll get a sense of satisfaction from having made sacrifices for the greater good that eclipses any hedonistic drive.
I've also googled what the stoics said about sex, it appears they disagree a bit. Some of them seem to think it should only happen in a marriage because virtuous people raising children is a good thing for society, and intimacy in a marriage strengthens the marriage and so is also a good thing. Others seem to think that sex as an expression of love is fine-and-dandy. The only universal seems to be meaningless casual sex is a bad thing because, well, it's meaningless and you're just doing it because you're horny.
The whole thing kinda reminds me of Freud. There's the "pleasure principle" - the instinctual drive to do things that feel good and avoid things that feel bad (e.g. "I should go try to fuck that hot person" or "I want to get really drunk"). This clashes with the superego's conscience ("If that hot person turns me down I should just kill myself out of embarrassment" or "I feel so guilty for considering drunkenness, which is a vice") which is informed by the ego-ideal ("Rejection is embarrassing. If I am rejected, people would probably laugh at me. Being laughed at is shameful and I don't want to be the sort of person people laugh at" or "My father was a pathetic drunk and his alcoholism destroyed our family. I don't want to be weak like him"). This is mediated by the ego, which is the "you" ("I might go strike up a conversation with the hot person and flirt a little to see if they're interested" or "I've got stuff to do tomorrow, so I'll just have a pint and stop there"), so both bargaining for the id (delayed gratification, plotting how to achieve the things you want in a realistic way) and counterbalancing the superego (not becoming neurotic about trying to be the perfect person).
(I know a lot of Freud is debunked, but psychology aside it's kinda like a philosophy as a model for understanding people).
Stoicism seems to basically be about achieving a good balance to that end, empowering the ego to control the id and using philosophy and rational thinking to teach the superego what your ego ideal should be, which is working towards a higher purpose and being rational.
Ollie's basically the opposite of that - he's internalised that bit in The Ethical Slut that says "pleasure is good and is a purpose in itself" and dialled it up to 11. Everything is about him or how things can benefit him or bring him pleasure. His approach to issues like the NHS are not about considering what's best for society at large, but about what's best for him personally. He cannot accept being told no and rails against how unfair e.g. a literary agent not letting him adapt a book is. He's showy and self aggrandising and seeks external validation.
Interestingly Freudian analysis of Narcissists usually seem to paint a picture of a weak ego and a hypercritical superego with a warped ego ideal. In other words e.g. the id says go fuck the hot person and you get rejected, and the superego says "You should be the most fuckable person in the world. You got rejected so you are a WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT" and the ego is too weak to say "hey it's not that deep, people get rejected all the time, so what? Just because that person doesn't want to fuck me doesn't mean I'm a worthless piece of shit". So the ego retreats and a false ego steps in - "actually lots of people want to fuck me and everyone showers me with love and affection on the internet and says how great I am so that proves you're wrong" (the reliance on narcissistic supply to outsource the ego defence) and "actually they only don't want to fuck me because they're a transphobic cunt and I hate them and they're evil and I didn't want to fuck them anyway, they're ugly and fat and stupid, and now I'm going to throw my drink on them to put them in their place" (narcissistic injury/narcissistic rage).
When you view Ollie in that light a lot of the stuff he does makes a lot more sense. Also Freud aside, that model is still pretty close to what modern psychologists conceptualise narcissistic personality disorder to be.
My prediction: Ollie looks at a bunch of stoic philosophy about being a virtuous community minded citizen who works towards a higher purpose and avoids debasing oneself with hedonistic debauchery, And Here's Why That's Bad Actually. Probably tenuously tied into the growing zoomer meme about TradWives and the like, maybe even with a soupçon of And Here's Why Stoicism Is Transphobic.
Over 400 pages in just two years? I guess that puts Ollie at 0.3 Kevins on the Kiwiscale, although that's maybe a bit unfair as it only really picked up once Abigail emerged.
Oh God, he’s doing Stoicism? He said something in the last live stream about “stoicism” being the most googled term along with Philosophy Tube, or with his name, or maybe as a philosophy search term on YouTube in general. I can’t remember precisely. But my point being that choosing this topic is more craven algorithm chasing. So much for going where your intellectual interests take you.
Found it. “Stoicism” is the term his subscribers most frequently search for. 2nd is “Marcus Aurelius”.
He must be getting desperate for free hair transplants as he seems to have started colouring in his hairline in photos.
He's been off begging a charity to indulge his ridiculous vanity. You couldn't make it up! And why is he dressed in that ghastly goth ensemble. He has no cleavage for a low cut front. Brian should have told him by now that acres of stubble and acne scarred white chest is not a pretty sight.
Great Scott, someone put a tiara on the Geico caveman.
Contra has a pretty good reason not to publicly accuse Choob: it would damage the trans movement. Lefties never pull the trigger on one of their own right away. They save it until they need a big online pick-me-up, until their jealousy of the target's success grows too intense, or until the cancellation is already set in motion and they need to jump on the trend for clout.
Also, those alternative scenarios still meet the definition of rape in lefty world.
Hon calling out Choob would hurt the trans movement so much. Especially if Choob has dirt on Hontra (in vino veritas and all that) If Hon tries to call out Choob for being a "fake trans", what's stopping Choob from saying the same thing about Hon.
Can't see any YouTube videos, though around half of what's on the list are separate entries from a single book, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy. A good chunk of the rest seem to be articles rather than serious scholarly work. As for the actual books, by Seneca, Epictetus et al, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he only skimmed them. Full list here:
Einzelgänger (which he's misspelled) is the YouTube channel. Also IDK if I misunderstood you but scholarly articles, like the ones published in Phronesis, do also fall in the category of serious scholarly work.
In any case, anyone who needs to qualify their list of sources with "Yes, I read them all!" is clearly not doing the reading with the goal of retaining any useful info.
I just find it funny he's still so attached to classical philosophy which to me is the ultimate boys' club.
Gives you a Bibliography in no recognized academic form. (Probably includes no citations at all in the transcript.)
Yeah it's driving me nuts, it's pretty hard to find, for example, a book chapter when they're cited like that with no indication of whether it even is a book chapter or a journal or something else. So it's clearly not "Hey, here's a list of sources if you want to read up on it yourself, or even check if what I said is actually supported the thing I cited at all" but a completely performative "look how many bullet points are on my Smart Person List".
(Side note: I remember in one video he gave advice on how to do well at university (because for some reason he did), and his advice was just "do all the reading a week early" which is like... the least offensive thing he's said but it offended me, lol. Nothing about developing skills or techniques, just, start early and keep being early all the way through. That just drives me nuts.)
My prediction: Ollie looks at a bunch of stoic philosophy about being a virtuous community minded citizen who works towards a higher purpose and avoids debasing oneself with hedonistic debauchery, And Here's Why That's Bad Actually. Probably tenuously tied into the growing zoomer meme about TradWives and the like, maybe even with a soupçon of And Here's Why Stoicism Is Transphobic.
So stoicism has been (unfairly in my opinion) much criticised in recent years by progressive types, who like to associate it with 'toxic masculinity' - IIRC even some national group of psychologists (I forget who exactly) in the UK a few years ago condemned 'stoic values' or whatever being taught to boys because this would harm their emotional development.
This is largely based on the popular understanding of stoicism as the belief that men aren't allowed to cry and must repress their emotions. This isn't an accurate representation of stoic philosophy, however, as real experts would point out. Stoicism essentially teaches one how to be in control of one's emotions, not be oppressed by them, and not to be preoccupied by things which one cannot change. In principle of course there's no reason these ideas can't apply equally to both women and men.
This guy introduces the subject pretty well IMO for those interested:
So if I had to guess, I reckon Olly's video will be something on the lines of this same tired old 'stoicism = bad' formulation. Also wouldn't be surprised if transphobia got shoehorned in there somewhere, possibly also the anti-Epicurean angle you mentioned.
Can't see any YouTube videos, though around half of what's on the list are separate entries from a single book, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy. A good chunk of the rest seem to be articles rather than serious scholarly work. As for the actual books, by Seneca, Epictetus et al, I'd say there's a pretty good chance he only skimmed them. Full list here:
Hopefully they were doing no more than politely humouring and head-patting this raving extremist who demands priority treatment from the NHS, despite insisting that gender dysphoria doesn't exist. They can't actually take him seriously, right?
